Who Makes a Good Prospective Missionary?
I remember meeting Ashley. She was a young missionary who came to work a two-year term with a team close to us in Central Asia. She loved Jesus and earnestly desired to share the gospel and serve others…
Missions in an Urban Context
In 1974, the missiologist Ralph Winter challenged the global church to think beyond the borders of modern nation-states and cross all barriers of language and culture in taking the gospel to all the “hidden” peoples of the world. For nearly two generations, this challenge has…
FAMILIES ON THE FIELD
Have you ever had a moment of questioning your life choices? One day, you’re strolling along, and suddenly, doubts hit you out of nowhere…
Walking the Tightrope: Right Motivations for Missionaries You Send
A good friend of mine attended a mission conference as a university student. She knew very little about missions at the time, and as she listened to the talks, attended breakouts, and spoke with various mission agencies, she became overwhelmed with the task's urgency…
The Priority of Proclamation
As a young ministry intern, my boss took me to a large Central Asian city. We participated in a missionary training conference for those who had served on the field for over ten years. We heard a challenging exposition of Romans 10 about the power of preaching God’s Word in Christian ministry, but…
CULTURE THROUGH A BIBLICAL LENS
When I was a kid, my grandparents flew out to meet us for a vacation ‘halfway’ between America and Central Asia, where we lived. We met in beautiful Cyprus…
Who’s your team? Navigating the Surprising Struggle for Missionaries
We could hardly contain our excitement. My wife and I spent years preparing for this moment, and there we were, in a new country halfway across the world, far from everything familiar…
Why Do Good Churches Send Bad Missionaries?
A young couple, fairly new to the church and largely unknown, asked to meet with the elders. Much to the elders’ surprise, the couple informed them that they were going to be missionaries…
Missions Policies Matter: A Key to Missionary Effectiveness
My friend, the newly installed pastor of a dying downtown church, faced such withering problems he fretted that he was destined to go down with the ship….
FLYING SOLO BUT NOT ALONE: Supporting Singles on the Field
Singles represent around one-third of missionaries on the field; of these, at least 80% are women. This means that approximately a quarter of all missionaries are single women…